Will Barack Obama's presidential candidacy serve his state and city by finally drawing national attention to the sleazy and corrupt politics of Illinois and Chicago?

It is all about context. The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate's politics were born in Chicago. Yet he is presented to the nation as not truly being of this place, as if he floats just above the political corruption here, uninfected, untouched by the stain of it or by any sin of commission or omission. It is all so very mystical.

Perhaps viewing Obama as a Chicago political creature would conflict with the established national media narrative of Obama as a reformer. Actually, there's no "perhaps" about it.

"I think I have done a good job in rising politically in this environment without being entangled in some of the traditional problems of Chicago politics," Obama told reporters and editors at a Tribune editorial board meeting several weeks ago.

Yes, an excellent job. Except for his dalliance with his indicted real estate fairy, Tony Rezko, a relationship Obama considers a mistake, the senator has not played the fly to Mayor Richard Daley's spider. Almost, but not quite.

"I know there are those like John Kass who would like me to decry Chicago politics more frequently, and I'll leave that to his editorial commentary," Obama said.

Not the politics, just the corruption, I said then, wishing silently that he had decried it all, that he'd stood up years ago and pointed to the list of sleazy deals, pointed an angry finger at the Duffs, the white, Outfit-connected drinking buddies of Daley who received $100 million in affirmative action contracts through City Hall.

The media, working in concert with Obama’s operatives, have created an image. People are voting for the image. The real person has been craftily hidden behind a smile and glib speeches. I believe the real person is more like his angry wife and pastor.

"So you want to get Capone? Well, here's how you get Capone...when he pulls a knife, you pull a gun. When he puts one of your men in the hospital, send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way......now what are you prepared to do?"

(Although those tactics fit Hitlery better than Hussein, hehehe.)

8
posted on 05/11/2008 2:14:12 PM PDT
by Emperor Palpatine
("There is no civility, only politics.")

From Dreams of My Father, “ I FOUND A SOLACE IN NURSING A PERVASIVE SENSE OF GRIEVANCE AND ANIMOSITY AGAINST MY MOTHER’S RACE”.

From ‘Dreams of my Father’, “THE EMOTION BETWEEN THE RACES COULD NEVER BE PURE...THE OTHER RACE WOULD ALWAYS REMAIN JUST THAT; MENACING, ALIEN AND APART.”

From ‘Dreams of My Father’,
“I CEASED TO ADVERTISE MY MOTHER’S RACE AT THE AGE OF 12 OR 13, WHEN I BEGAN TO SUSPECT THAT BY DOING SO I WAS INGRATIATING MYSELF TO WHITES.”

From Dreams Of My Father, “NEVER EMULATE THE WHITE MEN and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. IT WAS INTO MY FATHER’S IMAGE, THE BLACK MAN, SON OF AFRICA, THAT I’D PACKED ALL THE ATTRIBUTES I SOUGHT IN MYSELF”.

From Dreams Of My Father:
“THAT HATE HADN’T GONE AWAY,” he wrote, BLAMING “WHITE PEOPLE some cruel, some IGNORANT, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives.”

From Dreams Of My Father;
“There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs,” he wrote. “IT REMAINED NECESSARY TO PROVE WHICH SIDE YOU WERE ON, TO SHOW YOUR LOYALTY TO THE BLACK MASSES, TO STRIKE OUT, AND NAME NAMES. “

From Dreams Of My Father, “I HAD GROWN ACCUSTOMED , everywhere, TO SUSPICIONS BETWEEN THE RACES.”

From Dreams of My Father, “ I FOUND A SOLACE IN NURSING A PERVASIVE SENSE OF GRIEVANCE AND ANIMOSITY AGAINST MY MOTHER’S RACE”.

From ‘Dreams of my Father’, “THE EMOTION BETWEEN THE RACES COULD NEVER BE PURE...THE OTHER RACE WOULD ALWAYS REMAIN JUST THAT; MENACING, ALIEN AND APART.”

From ‘Dreams of My Father’,
“I CEASED TO ADVERTISE MY MOTHER’S RACE AT THE AGE OF 12 OR 13, WHEN I BEGAN TO SUSPECT THAT BY DOING SO I WAS INGRATIATING MYSELF TO WHITES.”

From Dreams Of My Father, “NEVER EMULATE THE WHITE MEN and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. IT WAS INTO MY FATHER’S IMAGE, THE BLACK MAN, SON OF AFRICA, THAT I’D PACKED ALL THE ATTRIBUTES I SOUGHT IN MYSELF”.

From Dreams Of My Father:
“THAT HATE HADN’T GONE AWAY,” he wrote, BLAMING “WHITE PEOPLE some cruel, some IGNORANT, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives.”

From Dreams Of My Father;
“There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs,” he wrote. “IT REMAINED NECESSARY TO PROVE WHICH SIDE YOU WERE ON, TO SHOW YOUR LOYALTY TO THE BLACK MASSES, TO STRIKE OUT, AND NAME NAMES. “

From Dreams Of My Father, “I HAD GROWN ACCUSTOMED , everywhere, TO SUSPICIONS BETWEEN THE RACES.”

"I think I have done a good job in rising politically in this environment without being entangled in some of the traditional problems of Chicago politics," Obama told reporters and editors at a Tribune editorial board meeting several weeks ago.

I wonder how the Chicago Tribune got a hold of Obama's opponent Jack Ryan's sealed divorce records that drove Ryan out of the race and Obama into the Senate.

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